The role of COTS software in satellite ground control systems

Until recently, the ground control segment for each new space system has been developed from scratch, with little carry-over or application of "lessons learned" from previous systems. The growth in importance and emphasis on re-use and re-engineering of software over the past few years, combined with the rapid growth of space applications and the commercial software development industry has led to the availability of commercial (COTS) and government (GOTS) developed software applicable to virtually every phase of operations in a ground control segment. This paper examines several aspects of the role of COTS, GOTS, and legacy software in developing a ground segment for a satellite system. Some pitfalls in the re-use and re-engineering of software are discussed, including hidden assumptions and approximations in algorithms, problems of interfacing and wrappering, and interactions with an independent commercial software firm versus in-house development teams, subcontractors, and contract team members.